KARACHI: Major political parties blame corruption, mismanagement, favouritism and lack of vision on the part of the government which together leads to growth in poverty, unemployment, illiteracy, disease and hunger. MDG targets are nothing but a dream, they say.

Most of the political leaders believe the 2015 targets need to be forgotten, as four to five decades are required to achieve the targets in Pakistan.

The Muslim League (Nawaz) thinks 2045 is a better target; the Tehrik Insaf thinks it will be year 2100 when MDGs might get implemented in Balochistan, and 2040 for Punjab, and a little later in Sindh and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa; and Jamaat-i-Islami thinks it is never going to happen under the current government. Jamaat chief Syed Munawwar Hassan was critical of the government’s “lust for loans”. “The number of poor and quantum of poverty both are rising rapidly because of the present loan-based economy. People are being enslaved by increasing the burden of loans,” he remarked, finding the root cause in lack of honesty, integrity and seriousness.

“Whatever is agreed even in parliament and all-party conferences never gets implemented. The parliament is supreme and is empowered, but there is a lack of will for going the extra mile,” he said.

PML-N’s Ahsan Iqbal, a former deputy chairman of the Planning Commission, saw the situation as alarming, and said poverty had risen manifold owing to “wrong economic policies, corruption, leakages, mismanagement, mis-governance and lack of vision and will”.

The 18th Amendment, he said, had complicated the matter further as far as MDGs are concerned. At the centre, health and education ministries have been abolished after their devolution to the provinces. He lamented that there was no monitoring cell or coordination body when he had moved the National Assembly for the constitution of a special committee on MDGs.

Wile citing examples from Punjab where, according to him, much was being done in the social sector for the last four years, Mr Iqbal was critical of the PPP government’s policies and said that owing to bad policies whatever amount was loaned by the nation during the last 62 to 63 years, was doubled by the PPP in its four-year tenure. Loans today stand at 12.5 trillion from 5.5 trillion in 2008.”

The Pakistan Tehrik Insaf leadership claimed that it had the real vision to implement the targets set in the MDGs, and stressed its stated priorities for health, education and social sectors. Calling the economic growth anaemic, PTI chief Imran Khan said that if the economy continued to grow at the current pace of 3 per cent, it would take half-a-century to achieve the target. He expressed concern over double-digit inflation and viewed that no fresh jobs would be created soon, making things worse.

PTI’s Asad Omar was of the view that at least 100 people of the party Central Committee had full and professional understanding of MDGs, and the party had made policies after thorough debates at local, provincial and central levels.

The PTI leadership, he said, aimed at increase spending on health to 2.2 per cent from the present 0.8 per cent. By achieving economic growth, “we plan to increase 2,000,000 fresh jobs annually,” he said. The party also plans to impart skills to 300,000 youth, especially girls, annually, and ultimately linking skill development with creation of two million jobs.

Influential coalition partners the Muttahida Quami Movement believes the MDG targets are “very ambitious” for Pakistan in the present circumstances. Dr Farooq Sattar frankly admits that the country will not be able to hit the 2015 target.

Pakistan, he said, must make serious efforts to reduce extreme poverty and hunger. Achieving 100 per cent universal primary education is a target that should have been met by Pakistan long time ago.

Feudal system is another reason for the high incidence of poverty in rural areas. The feudal system should be abolished and land reforms be introduced in order to enable the people living in rural areas to improve their condition, he added.

The MQM Deputy Convener said that it was necessary for Pakistan to “spend at least 5 to 7 per cent of the GDP for educating the people that would in the long run equip them to find better employment opportunities.”

He continued: “Disparities in the education system prevailing in the country should also be removed so that poor people may also hope to acquire the same quality of education that at present is accessible to the rich alone.”

He said that the country does have the capacity to meet the MDG challenges, but it needs dedication and the will to serve the people in the real sense of the word. Politics should be for “the sake of serving the people and for nothing else”.

Eradication of poverty is directly linked with the capabilities of the people, and employment opportunities generated by stimulating business and investment. In Pakistan, the poor inherit poverty just as the rich inherit power. They are faced with unequal opportunities in the field of education even in the urban centres, he stressed.

Pakistan, he said, must take urgent steps to meet the energy requirements of the country. Businesses are being relocated outside the country and capital is being removed to foreign locations because of increasing cost of doing business in Pakistan and the widening gap in power generation and requirement. It is necessary to move away from conventional energy resources and in order to encourage investment and stimulate industrialisation.

While Dr Nadeem Ehsan and Khushbakht Shujaat have been assigned the responsibility by the MQM to keep an eye on MDG affairs, the party believes that without improving the law and order situation in Karachi, the government wouls always struggle to lure in foreign investment, said Dr Sattar.